About Us

About Us About Us About Us

Who We Are

At The Orion Fund, we are dedicated to providing grants for California college students facing serious health crises. Whether it’s the aftermath of a car accident, a cancer diagnosis, or another unexpected medical emergency, we work to put a vital safety net in place—so students can focus on their education, not just their recovery.
We believe no young adult should have their future derailed by illness or injury, or be left to face these challenges alone. With resources for student health crisis support rapidly disappearing across universities, The Orion Fund continues to be a source of hope and practical help for those who have nowhere else to turn.
Resilient, determined, positive, and diverse—these are the qualities we see in every student we support. Our students are heroes and the next generation of leaders. At The Orion Fund, we stand beside each student with compassion, strength, and unwavering hope, making sure their dreams of a college education remain within reach. Every student deserves the chance to rise, recover, and succeed.
College students are already under enormous pressure, but when facing a medical crisis their dreams become secondary to their survival. The Orion Fund recognizes the importance of a college education and the daunting challenges faced by a health crisis. Our mission is to provide a safety net, so that students can recover and achieve their educational goals.
Each year The Orion Fund provides grants for uncovered medical costs, educational costs and living expenses… for the past 20 years and still counting.
are a volunteer organization established as a legacy of Orion Trott, a U.C. San Diego student who died from cancer at the age of 21. Friends and family members gathered together in Orion’s memory, raising funds to start The Orion Fund in 2004. Our annual fundraiser is our golf tournament in Napa Valley each October.
We serve California college students age thirty-two and younger who are facing a serious health crisis. Grantees have included students suffering from cancer, Crohn’s disease, cardiovascular events and traumatic injury... car crashes to cancer. Our students go on to become parents, professionals, entrepreneurs and artists, just to name a few.
We at The Orion Fund are inspired by the courage and resilience of our grantees as they strive to continue their studies in the face of serious health challenges. Our grants not only relieve their financial burden, but let these students know we acknowledge their tremendous efforts.

Pam Hirtzer

CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, 2004
Pam co-founded The Orion Fund with Shelley in 2004. The Orion Fund is a legacy fund, inspired by the story of her son, Orion. Pam is a scientist, with a graduate degree in chemistry. She now consults for young biotechnology companies, working on new drugs in clinical trials. A highlight of Pam’s career was when an Orion Fund student mentioned that a new drug for multiple sclerosis had changed her life, and it was a drug Pam had worked on. Pam is very involved with young adults in medical crises and the impact on their lives. If The Orion Fund can help unimaginable events turn out better for a young adult, then we will have been successful.
Julia Walsh, M.D.

MEDICAL ADVISOR, BOARD MEMBER, 2011
Julia is Professor Emerita in Community Health Sciences at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Julia was trained in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases as well as public health. Her teaching and research concentrated on public health interventions that improve the wellbeing of the poorest populations, especially infant and child health, and women's reproductive health. Julia gives her time to The Orion Fund "to help guide grants towards those students who have tremendous potential despite current health and financial problems that inhibit their progress.”
Wendy Bevier

TREASURER, 2024
Wendy calls Santa Barbara home. It’s where she completed high school and earned her PhD in Human Physiology from UC Santa Barbara, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford. In 2004, she joined the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, working on an artificial pancreas project. After 2016, she focused her research on Type 2 Diabetes in the Hispanic/Latino community, emphasizing diet, exercise, and education. Following her retirement from SDRI in June 2024, Wendy joined The Orion Fund's Board of Directors, having been involved since its inception, particularly in organizing Golf Tournaments. She looks forward to devoting more time to The Orion Fund.
Nia Lewis

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, BOARD MEMBER, 2025
Nia Lewis is a marketing and business leader who helps SMBs and non-profits grow through innovative, data-driven strategies. With 12+ years of experience, she combines marketing, team development, and business strategy to build campaigns that align with organizational goals and deliver measurable results.
Passionate about the intersection of business, marketing, and advocacy, Nia leverages cutting-edge tools to drive growth while empowering teams to thrive. Guided by a commitment to continuous learning, she helps organizations create meaningful impact through ethical, creative, and forward-thinking practices.
Jessica King

DIRECTOR, STUDENT STORIES, BOARD MEMBER, 2025
Jessica King is a disabled disability scholar-activist with a passion for storytelling, education, and social justice. She completed her dual-major/dual-minor education in creative writing, comparative world literature, health humanities, and human development at Long Beach State University. Currently a graduate student in disability studies at the City University of New York, she connects her disabled experiences to conference presentations, nonprofit leadership roles, and community narrative projects. She proudly serves The Orion Fund as a neurodivergent and chronically ill woman from a low-income first-generation academic background, aspiring to bring forward stories of students with disabilities and medical crises.
Florence Mou

EVENTS, FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER, 2004.
Florence is a founding member of The Orion Fund. Florence is motivated to serve on the Board by her desire to help ease the financial burden for students afflicted by health challenges, and brings her expertise in event planning and desktop publishing to The Orion Fund.
Kaylene Hirtzer

EVENTS, BOARD MEMBER, 2011
Kaylene is a seasoned paralegal, with over 41 years of experience, with an ABA Accredited Legal Assistant Certificate from Sonoma State University . Kaylene has worked in small to medium sized firms, focusing on personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, business and real estate. In addition to The Orion Fund, Kaylene has served as a board member and/or officer for various nonprofit organizations, including Soroptimist International of Healdsburg, Healdsburg Little League and Child Parent Institute.
Jeannine Wisnosky

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, 2025
Jeannine brings decades of nonprofit leadership and fundraising experience to The Orion Fund. She has guided strategy, fundraising, communications, and events for nonprofit and civic organizations, raising vital support through grants, corporate partnerships, and individual giving. Her passion lies in connecting people to missions, helping donors, partners, and community members see the life-changing impact of their support.
At The Orion Fund, Jeannine is committed to ensuring that California college students facing health crises have the resources they need to continue their education and thrive. She holds an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a BS in Advertising from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Lisa Towles

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, 2025
Lisa Towles is an executive communications strategist and an award-winning crime novelist. With nearly 20 years in the tech industry, she has led critical communications teams and initiatives at Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Western Digital, and HCL. But her purpose-driven values continue to draw her to the nonprofit sector, where she supported BridgeGood.org as a grant writer, board member, and board president.
Lisa is a creative powerhouse with 13 crime novels in print and a new book, Switch, releasing on September 30, 2025. She hosts an author interview podcast called “Story Impact” and considers supporting other authors to be her calling. Lisa has an MBA in IT Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in music. She is so excited to be supporting the critical mission and community impact of The Orion Fund.
Ron Horn

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, 2025
Ron has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley. He worked for over 30 years with General Electric until his retirement. He was a Chief Consulting Engineer in the Nuclear Energy business with both technical, programmatic and review responsibilities. His work with young engineers led to his interest in supporting students in their educational endeavors. Ron, previously an Orion Fund Board Member for several years, has returned to help develop strategies for sustainability of the fund with its wonderful mission..
Christian Daniel

WEBSITE DESIGNER, 2024
Christian Daniel Van Norden is a web designer and video editor with over 20 years of experience helping organizations and businesses build their online presence. Born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Christian later moved to New York City, where he earned his BA from Hunter College and launched his career in digital design. Now based in Queens, he brings a hands-on, creative approach to every project, specializing in custom websites and award-winning video content for nonprofits, hospitality, and creative brands. Christian is passionate about using his skills to help mission-driven organizations tell their stories and make a positive impact.

“Orion was contemplating life as an upper division physics student at U.C. San Diego when he called me to say that his face was going numb. Life at the time included long hours of calculus and physics, boogie boarding down at the beach, snowboarding in the mountains, tutoring kids, and head-over-heels inseparable from his girlfriend, Sara.”

A woman and a young man sitting on the grass in a park, smiling and enjoying the day.

So in June of 2003, I get a call from my son… he’s going to stay in San Diego for the summer, get a job, live with his friends. Oh, but, that’s fallen through, and by the way, Sara has lost the lease on her apartment, and they are going to share a place together for the summer. “So you two are living together? So explain to me why I’m not going to be a grandmother by the end of the year!” The explanation did not include the inoperable tumor in his brainstem three months later.

He came home for radiation and chemo in October. He asked us to leave, and talked to his doctors himself.

About Orion

They told him that he had maybe twelve months. So he threw the biggest New Years Eve party ever, and spent time with his friends. When I asked him about it afterwards, he said, “Mom, if I look in that direction, it’s all black. So I just don’t look that way.” He then enrolled at U.C. Berkeley for the spring semester of 2004, initially in quantum mechanics. But between the tumor and the chemo, he couldn’t keep up. The physics class evolved into a short fiction writing project with the English department. Orion had been writing as long as we could remember.

He titled his story “Error”, in which the young man is injured, and it’s a brain injury. Yet he saves himself and those he loves around him. Orion took care of all of us. He was courageous and brave. He saw the world with a rare calmness and clarity, a quiet passion. I have immense respect and love for my forever 21-year old, for the way he handled those unimaginable six months of his life; the way he faced his death. He persevered, with his hope and his life and his one love, Sara, every day, every week, every month.